This is my Goddaughter Myah.  She just turned 10 years old. She has had a difficult start at life. She was born 8 weeks early and diagnosed with Down's Syndrome and fluid on her brain. When she was 2 weeks old and still in the NICU, she was diagnosed with Periventricular Leukomalcia.  Since then, she has been diagnosed with many other ailments such as Cortical Blindness which included 2 eye surgeries,  Mal-rotated intestines which was corrected after one surgery, 2 sinus surgeries due to her tiny sinus passage ways, Heart surgery due to a hole in her hear which didn't correct on it's own, Hip surgery due to issues with her hip joins. She was also diagnosed with receptive-expressive language disorder. This means she has very limited verbal skills. At around 12 months old, she was diagnosed with Failure to Thrive. This means that she needs to be fed through a feeding tube for all of her meals and medication. Dawn, my best friend, has been an attentive mother through all of this.  She has scheduled and driven Myah to thousands of doctor and therapy appointments. Recently Myah's father has left the family and moved to California leaving Dawn with no other option than to file for divorce.  Myah's father does not pay child support and has not helped with Myah's expenses since he left the family.  He also left Dawn with many expenses, bills and most of all, the huge job of raising and taking care of Myah all by herself.  Myah is in a wheelchair and Dawn was transporting her in her minivan.  This was not a wheelchair accessible van and it was very difficult for Dawn to move Myah from her wheelchair to her car seat.  As Myah gets older (she is 10) it is hard for Dawn to carry her and move her around.  This past week, Dawn had a family friend look at her minivan since it wasn't sounding right.  She has been informed this week that her van will require more work than it is worth.  This of course is the worst time of year with Christmas approaching.  She desperately needs a wheelchair accessible van for Myah.  Just this week alone, Myah has 4 appointments and Dawn does not know how she is going to get her there.  Myah's wheelchair will not fit into a car and it is very heavy.  Too heavy for Dawn to lift by herself.  She has been using ramps to get Myah's wheelchair in and out of her old van.  This would be a lifesaver to both Dawn and Myah's  life. She is constantly to and from doctors and therapy appointments. 
If you are able to help, please do.  If not, please share this.  I would like to help Myah and Dawn to have a better quality of life.  God Bless and Merry Christmas.

If you are interested in more information on Myah, please see Newspaper Article on Myah from 3 years ago.